SAT/ACT Improvement

By Dr. Wayne Adams

When I started helping students learn and achieve optimum performance at the college and grad school level many years ago, I was committed to the idea that half of optimum performance was mental.

This has proven correct!

All of my students today know that I firmly believe HALF OF THEIR ACHIEVING THEIR BEST SCORES on the SAT or ACT is MENTAL … and HALF is academic foundation, test “smarts”, strategies, specific knowledge, and techniques.

In our classes, we incorporate many ways to Achieve and Maintain Your Peak Mental Performance Zone which has proven extremely helpful for my students. These principles and practices are incorporated into all areas of our classes, and I now have written an 18 page Guide which every student receives as part of the class.

Not long ago, I asked one of my top-scoring students (SAT 1540) if he had test anxiety. On the surface, he was very calm and focused, so I would never have guessed his answer. “That is my biggest problem on these exams.”

At the other end of the spectrum, another student had been going through a very difficult time outside of our classes and it spilled over into his taking a baseline exam. About halfway through, he totally broke down, started crying, and kept repeating “I can’t do this. I can’t do this.” Of course, we stopped and talked about what was happening in his “real life”, he calmed down, reestablished his zone, and moved ahead.

In the middle was a young lady, very calm on the surface with a quick mind that thought on multiple tracks at the same time. During the first part of our first class, a “get to know you and hear the philosophies underlying the class” for my students and their parents, I asked if she ever had test anxiety. It was like she had been struck by lightning. She nodded vigorously while her mom spoke at the same time saying, “She gets so nervous the night before an exam that she can hardly talk or think, and has a very hard time going to sleep.”

We all have some test anxiety before a big exam, we are all human. But how we manage this and turn it into peak mental performance throughout the test is very important. Very few of my students ever say they never get nervous, sometimes lose focus, go down “rabbit trails” in their thinking, and other symptoms of losing their peak mental performance zone. The differentiating factor is how much this disrupts their ability score at their best, and how they can handle it when it happens.

FULL ANXIETY RANGE

CHART: We begin by understanding what can happen just before and during the exam by reviewing my Full Anxiety Range Chart. This can range from the right balance of calm and a little anxiety in or peak performance zone, through multiple attacks by what we call “Gremlins” that can take some students “down the rabbit hole” mentally, emotionally, and even physically. The key is understanding these are all attacks aimed at the Will, and then how to stop them in their tracks.

YOUR TEST TAKING

PERSONALITY: Part of our thinking is guided by each student determining their “Test Taking Personality”. While there are many personality evaluations and classifications, none I have found focus specifically on test anxiety and peak mental performance zones. So I created four major types: Oh Wells, Intuitives, Logicals, and Perfectionists. Each has specific strengths and weaknesses related to scoring on exams, and many students have traits from several types.

These four types span all test taking and learning levels ranging of my students from IBs, Cambridges, APs, AVIDs, general student population, public high schools, private high schools … to those qualifying for additional time on the exams (Section 504 students) including those with ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Asperger’s.

FOURTEEN THINGS

YOU CAN DO: Once understanding what can happen and test taking personalities, our next step is how to use the 14 Things You Can Do During The Exam In Your Seat to stay in your peak mental performance zone and, if needed, quickly reestablish it. We also practice these during our baseline exams and Dress Rehearsal Exam. One of the things I really like about the mental preparation part of our classes is that what my students learn can help them the rest of their lives: high school, college, graduate school, and especially “life situation” exams which we all face from time to time. As all of my students and their parents know, my ultimate goal is for each student and family to have their best possible futures, including doing their best on the SAT and/or ACT Exams.

If You Would Like To Talk More About Your Student …

Please contact me at 727-2530639 or send me an e mail at wwa0811@mykolab.com.

Dr. Wayne Adams is one of the leading SAT and ACT

tutors in the country. His students normally improve 200 – 350 points on the Writing, Reading, Writing and Essay, and Math, and 4 – 7 points on the ACT composite. They have been admitted to 8 of the top 10 universities in the country, 18 of the top 25, and many schools in Florida. These schools include Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, U Chicago, Duke, U Penn, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Notre Dame, Emory, UC Berkley, UCLA, USC, UNC (Chapel Hill), NYU, Northeastern (Boston), Boston College, Georgia Tech, Naval - Air Force - Merchant Marine Service Academies, Penn State, LSU, Auburn, UF, U Miami, FSU, USF, UCF, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, FIU, New College of Florida, Stetson, and Julliard – Manhattan - New England - and Berkley Conservatories of Music. Many have received academic, athletic, or music scholarships. This year, he also tutored three juniors who scored at the national merit finalist/semi-finalist levels on the most recent PSAT. He is a former Dean of a Graduate School of Business and Full Professor, and began college teaching at the University of Maryland in 1968. He has degrees and advanced studies at Harvard, Yale, Vanderbilt, Columbia International, and Luther Rice.